The biggest week of the year is only just starting - but Benji Marshall has already set a grand final record.
Benji's remarkable feat of playing two deciders 16 years apart is unparalleled in the 113-year history of rugby league, according to stats guru David Middleton.
A cheeky youngster when he threw THAT famous flick pass to win the Wests Tigers the unwinnable premiership in 2005, Benji is now 36 and the wise old man in the Rabbitohs' quest for glory.
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One of Benji's former team-mates - dual international Lote Tuqiri - comes closest to matching his feat, with 14 years between his two grand finals - for the Broncos in 2000 and Rabbitohs in 2014.
Ageless former Storm skipper Cam Smith also played grand finals 14 years apart (2006 and 2020) - but played quite a few others in between.
Souths out to break premiership hoodoo
Souths committed a premiership-winning curse not once but twice in 2021 - and hopefully that won't play with the players' heads in the lead-up to the big one.
Since 1908, no team that has conceded 50 points in a game has ever won the premiership - and the Bunnies achieved the unwanted milestone in both rounds nine (50-0 v Storm) and eleven (56-12 v Panthers).
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The round 11 clash against the Panthers is certain to still be in the players' minds with the Penrith backline running wild - Matt Burton scored three tries, Nathan Cleary bagged two and Brian To'o ran for over 200 metres.
Panthers pair the key
The Jarome Luai - Nathan Cleary partnership shapes as Souths' biggest hurdle in the quest for the title on Sunday.
Remarkably, since they paired up in 2019, Luai and Cleary have won 38 of 41 games together as the Panthers' starting halves.
The duo complement each other perfectly and take the heat off each other in big matches.
The Rabbitohs will target the pair in the big one - but Melbourne tried the same on Saturday and weren't able to complete the assignment.
Storm look to 2022
So what went wrong with the Storm - the minor premiers and standout team throughout the 2021 season?
When they lost Brandon Smith and Christian Welch to first-half concussions and George Jennings dropped the ball with the tryline open, you got the feeling this wasn't going to be their day.
But there was more to it than that - form players Cameron Munster and Harry Grant made some poor decisions and the Storm dropped enough ball to have Craig Bellamy head-butting the coaching box window.
Even so, they almost snatched it at the death - but it would have been a case of the better team losing had they got up.
Loss ends Hasler's perfect record
Manly were blown away by Souths in the first half on Friday night, but deserve plenty of credit for coming so close to a grand final after losing their opening four games.
Tom Trbojevic had a season for the ages and when he scored against the Rabbitohs, he broke the great Phil Blake's club record of 27 tries in a season set way back in 1983.
The game was also Des Hasler's first loss in a preliminary final - but Manly finished the season with their heads held high and with plenty of cause for optimism in 2022.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/the-mole-grand-final-benji-marshall-penrith-v-souths-nathan-cleary/71aef058-d36b-4e34-b09c-a4aacac5fe41
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